Week 2// National Coming Out Day

Friday 11th October 2013 was the 25th annual National Coming Out Day (that's a silver anniversary)! This provided us with the perfect opportunity to talk about some of the issues facing the LGBT community in Sheffield, find out about a range of different experiences and start engaging with people to find out what they really want to see in the future.

People marking their 'LGBT spaces' (blue), support services (green) and unsafe spaces (orange). Then adding flags with thoughts of what would make Sheffield a better place for the LGBT community. 

We teamed up with the University of Sheffield LGBT comity who were setting up a stand in the Students' Union; not neccessarily to encourage people to come out but to promote being comfortable and proud with whoever you are.

We mainly spoke to students, but also a few staff within the university, who then marked their 'LGBT spaces', support services and places in which they felt less safe to express themselves on a map of Sheffield. To this then adding ideas of what they'd like to see in Sheffield to make it a better place for the LGBT community. We think that this started to reveal some interesting patterns and could become a useful tool in determining what a centre might need and where it could be sited.

This marks the beginning of what we hope will be a wide-reaching consultation process. We are aware that the student population are already well catered for (a growing opinion between those we've already spoken to is that Sheffield mainly caters for the young gay man). We are looking to extend our reach towards groups and generations aren't so visible at the moment - allowing our research to reflect something that is accessible to as many people as possible. Thank you to everyone who came and spoke to us, we really value your input and opinions!

Live LGBT group with members of the University of Sheffield LGBT Comity.